


Maybe It's Maybelline

by SnowMercury



Category: Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Society Fusion AU, You Have Been Warned, also au where gems are integrated into human society fully and they coexist, in which romance is not the only driving force so, not nsfw but there might be fluff???, probably gonna be angst later on bc i usually write stories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-03-22 17:20:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3737179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowMercury/pseuds/SnowMercury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A misunderstanding leads to some utter embarrassment.<br/>(based on the following au prompt by homohighness on tumblr-<br/>“my friend thought you were cute so she tried to take a picture of you for snapchat and her flash went off but when you looked our way she shoved her phone into my hands and nOW YOU THINK IT’S ME AND OH GOD PLS DON’T BE MAD” au )</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> as a note, maybe theres some jaspis in some way but its only like in passing and not a relationship at all  
> this is my first time writing for the steven universe fandom and i havent written in a while so please bear with me

Maybe Peridot shouldn't have taken the bus this morning. 

Maybe she shouldn't have decided to travel to work with her coworker, Jasper. 

Maybe she could've been more...  _insistent_ in teaching Jasper how an iPhone worked- and how to turn the ever-loving  _flash **off**._

These were all a bunch of maybes, however, and it wasn't like she could go back in time. Not to mention how many  _paradoxes_ that would make and mess up the timeline. She wasn't stupid. No, Peridot just had bad foresight sometimes.

And some horrible luck with meeting new people.

 

"Jasper, put that  _down_ , you really shouldn't waste the battery life and I am  _not_  letting you borrow my phone today, there are nearly five-"

"Peri, c'mon, she's like a fairy princess or something, my followers need to know!"

"Jasper, that's fucking creepy and you know it, at least  _ask her_ first-"

"Too late!"

"She's going to hear you, quiet, wait, you have your flash-"

_"Say cheese!" Click._

Jasper's smile dropped as she shoved the phone onto Peridot, who fumbles and barely manages to catch the device in time to prevent it breaking on the metal floor on the ground. The phone's default words catch the attention of the subject in the photo, who turns her head to the pair sitting across from her. She looks curious, a little bit annoyed, and... like she's about to speak.

Peridot pauses, realizing how it looks with her holding the phone and Jasper  _convieniently turned to look like she's fucking asleep._

"Oh, uh, that was my coworker, not me."

The stranger takes on a slightly mischevious look, and Peridot's stomach drops. Not literally, but metaphorically.

"Really? Your coworker. Who's definitely not asleep."

"Yes! She's being a huge fucking jerk right now and  _pretending_ to sleep."

Peridot shoves Jasper's arm off her elbowrest, causing the orange gem to fall and hit the back of her head on the rest. She kept up the act, however. The stranger stifles a giggle.

"A-huh. Sure. Can I at least see the picture you-  _sorry,_ your coworker- took of me? And my name's Lapis, Lapis Lazuli if you want to know."

Peridot sighed, turning on the phone only to see a lock screen. 

"Fine, just a second. Need to get the password."

Elbowing Jasper, Peridot paused for a moment before poking Jasper's gem.

"Hey, I need your password."

"Ow! Hey, I'm sleeping here, you're gonna crack my gem and  _then_ where would you be? Besides, that's  _your_ phone, don't drag me into this. Don't you remember your passcode is 7-6-1-8?"

Peridot glared, crossing her legs and leaning away from Jasper.

"Fuck you. Okay, Lapis? Here's the picture she took, feel free to delete it or whatever."

Handing the phone to Lapis, Peridot paused for a second.

"And my name's Peridot, the jerk is Jasper."

Smiling, Lapis took the phone for a second, looking at the photo. Lifting a finger, she deleted the photo (apparently) and started to type something.

Wait, maybe she deleted the photo? Peridot was uncertain as to exactly what Lapis was doing until the blue gem took out her own phone. Groaning, Peridot took out her own iphone as evidence, wondering why she hadn't done that earlier.

"That actually is the jerk's phone, if you're trying to give me your phone number. Or get mine. Unless you want the cheeto puff's number. Password is 4-1-3-9."

"Still not a cheeto puff, dorito."

Lapis blinked, surprised that Peridot had been telling the truth.

"Oh. Thanks. Here, enter yours. Password is S-h-e-r. Capital S at the beginning."

Lapis tossed her phone to Peridot, who paused to look at the cover- which had a beach and the ocean, a small red crab in one corner. Turning the phone on, she typed in her number and gave the phone back to Lapis, who had finished with her own number. After the exchanging of phones, Lapis looked at the next stop and nodded.

"My stop's coming up next. Text me?"

Peridot nodded, smiling.

"Sure! See you later, Lapis."

An orange hand poked her shoulder after Lapis got off the bus, Jasper grinning.

"Ooooooh, somebody's got a cruuush."

"Shut up."

 


	2. Housing Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get more in depth as to the gems respective jobs, how they chose them, and then we have some text messages.  
> (slight spoilers for Jailbreak)

Many wouldn't think that Peridot would go into construction. To be fairly honest, she hadn't thought so either. After graduating from college (in which her major had been website coding) she had wanted to continue into the field she was most focused in; freelance hacking. As a gem that didn't particularly enjoy the idea of sleep, she had thought the probabilities were correct.

Just in case, she had minored in architectural design. Which was lucky; her parents may have been willing to pay for college, but they weren't going to support her afterwards. Which meant, she applied for the first job she could find in order to save money and hopefully move on to her career with some sort of place to live in and work from.

Besides that, she needed to save in order to pay for internet, electricity, the computer itself- loads of things. 

Jasper, however, had wanted a job doing the actual lifting and building of houses. If she had to choose something in architecture, that is; her first choice in a career was as a police officer, then firefighter, then she had thought about the army- long story short, her parents wanted her to do something with her life and apparently thought that those jobs were too selfless and wouldn't pay the bills.

She got stuck with design after a nearly deadly injury to her gem caused her parents to freak out.

Honestly, the two gems were only recently made and had been adopted by human parents in an attempt to foster a happier relationship with humans as a whole. The humans had been seen as a global threat after recent advancements gave them weapons over gems, and after the whole thing with Homeworld's sun going supernova, well... Let's just say that the gems, as a race, were desperate.

After the acknowledgement of aliens, humans had apparently found out there were aliens; causing a huge debate between the countries of Earth as to what to do. Surprisingly, they managed to elect a 'leader' of sorts after studying the sci-fi films of the old age, deciding that the 'take me to your leader' trope wasn't all that unlikely. Not only that, but they didn't want to appear not unified to those that were evidently longer lived.

The diamond heirarchy hated the entire process of melding the two cultures, but after consulting with one of their advisers, a fusion known as Garnet, it was seen that a peaceful inclination would be better for both species. 

This is to say that some gems preffered to be more aloof than the more accepting gems of their kind. This isn't to say that some conservative humans weren't extremely negative regarding the whole thing. Opinions were extremely varied regarding the treaties and laws passed between aliens and those that saw the Earth as home had to deal with some overcrowding.

Peridot didn't really care about the history that led to Earth being her home, or about her culture here. She still learned about the Fusion however, as it was 'necessary' for anybody to pass classes in higher education.

There were still some hostilities in her workplace against gems that showed themselves in the small ways people acted around her. Sometimes in the way they looked at her, or the way they whispered. It was something she had learned to deal with, and was something she didn't expect to change too soon in the future.

It was why she'd wanted to go into coding, the whole 'work from home, you're your own boss mostly' perks were pretty great. 

The sharp ringtone that sounded drug her out of her daydreaming, reminding her that she still had to finish the floor plans for a recent project and that she still needed to text Lapis. Finishing up her blueprints sketch for the last house of the day, she used her other hand to read the message on her phone.

Jasper: Hey, dorito, you text the princess yet?

Jasper: Hello?

Jasper: Have you seriously not finished your work yet? Answer ur phone

Jasper: oh shoot maybe dont the manager is walking around rn i dont want to lose this job

Peridot glanced around the office from her cubicle, noticing that the manager was indeed near to where Jasper was located. Well, maybe if she answered in the affirmitive, the teasing wouldn't be so bad.

Selecting Lapis Lazuli's entry in her phone, she started to write.

Peridot: Hey

Lapis: thank you for subscribing to sea animals factoids! if at any moment you wish to unsubscribe, just type cancel! 

Lapis: did you know that, up until the Fusion, a large amount of the ocean had gone undiscovered by people? several million species have been discovered, including many thought to be extinct at the time!

Peridot: wait

Peridot: what

Peridot: is this Lapis Lazuli or not?

Lapis: your command, 'is this Lapis Lazuli or not?' is unidentifiable!

Peridot: oh shoot its a wrong fukcing number just great

Peridot: Cancel

Lapis: it isnt a wrong number, silly! i was playing a prank on you :)

Lapis: you aren't angry right

Peridot: oh

Peridot: no, not angry 

Lapis: well thats good, cause this whole time i thought your name was Peridot

Lapis: would have been embarrassing to find out your name was angry

Peridot: !!!

Peridot: did you just dad joke me?

Lapis: what u gonna do if i did

Lapis: dad joke me back?

Peridot: nah

Peridot: will get you back for that though, just have to get off work

Lapis: oh hey, you never said where you work!

Lapis: i work as a lifeguard for a private pool, its kinda easy tho :/

Peridot: building design

Lapis: that sounds fun! :o

Peridot: its pretty boring, i wanted to go into computer coding

Lapis: oh 

Lapis: i wanted to work as a librarian, or maybe a historian! but i had to have a job to pay the bills first

Lapis: you know how it is :/

Lapis: i wish we were on Homeworld, i've heard that jobs were assigned there

Peridot: youre an adoptee as well?

Lapis: !!!

Lapis: thats so cool to have that in common! yeah, im an adoptee!

Lapis: did you ever have those awkward moments at the dinner table

Peridot: definitely

Peridot: those moments were the worst

Peridot: so glad to have moved out now, nobody saying 'well maybe you should eat your veggies'

Lapis: i mean, SOMETIMES the food was good

Lapis: like if there was fish

Lapis: but then i just felt guilty afterwards for eating something that used to be alive :/

 

Peridot paused, wondering what to say next- she heavily despised eating, except when it was energy drinks or coffee- but didn't want to offend Lapis. 

 

Peridot: work's getting out, brb

Lapis: alright!! text me later kay? :)

Peridot: of course 


	3. Gaming Community

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you everybody for reading! comments would be really helpful, especially on what i could still use some work on. im trying to keep the characters, well, 'in character' as much as i can.  
> again, thank you for the kudos, subscribes, and bookmarks!!! :>>>

It was late by the time she got home. Jasper had been joking around on the bus, teasing her about Lapis- who Peridot did  _not_ have a crush on, thank you very much. 

After getting settled on the couch in the living room of her apartment- which was two stories, part of a building, and had two bathrooms. There was a bedroom upstairs and a kitchen in the area she was in right now- even a small balcony, which would be good if it wasn't rotting because of the horrible weather.

Her interest in technology also lended itself to another aspect of her lifestyle- a (slightly well-known) video game let's play channel. 

When you didn't need to sleep, it was nice to have a hobby. 

Especially if said hobby could be relaxing or shared with others; sometimes she had a multiplayer game she wanted to play, so she'd invite Jasper over (and if the fanfiction wasn't so embarassing, Peridot would probably do it more often, truth be told). 

Today, though, was a livestream day. After setting Twitch up for a stream, she doublechecked that her screencapture was set up and the equipment was working. The game had something to do with water and exploration and deep sea monster dueling; fun, enchanting, and somehow they'd actually escaped the eternally blue color scheme. Halfway through the game, however, her phone went off.

Needless to say, her watchers noticed. After (finally) finishing ranting about the stylistic graphics in the game, those watching the stream seemed pretty surprised (and a few thought the text was from Jasper). Her phone had gone off in these streams before, so they were kind of familiar with her ringtones.

After saying a quick 'be right back' to the people watching the stream, she checked her phone. And there was a text from Lapis.

Lapis: periiiiiiiiiiii its later :(

Lapis: why does everything after ten have to be either clubs, grocery stores, or parties? 

Peridot: hey lapis

Peridot: actually, i'm kind of busy right now. i'm playing this game and streaming it live so i don't have long

Peridot: whats up?

Lapis: !!! u stream? on what? & whats ur username? :O

Peridot: i stream on twitch, screen name is limetriangle

Peridot: its the same on my yt btw

Lapis: wait, ur limetriangle??? :OO

Lapis: thats cool! i think ive heard of u before!!! 

Lapis: i dont want to keep u from ur watchers, but keep an eye in the comments section for a bit k??

Peridot: sure

 

Peridot finished typing, and after waiting a moment for a reply, started the stream up again. Scrolling to the comments, she typed something up quickly.

LimeTriangle: hey somebodys gonna be showing up in the comments soon

Eldritchdemon: which is why we shouldnt trust wizards!

lamegreen: !!! wb lime!!

Purplesoda: wb

LimeTriangle: and i need you guys not to link to any of your ffiction ok

Yallowsquare: is it Jasper

lamegreen: sure!!! :>>>

pterydactl: why not

Purplesoda: awww

LimeTriangle: theyre someone i met on the bus today

effervescentaromatic: perfect au you guys are gonna get together i can tell

pterydactl: im gonna link it

lamegreen: @effervescentaromatic theyre sentient and in real life??? and they just met???

Yallowsquare: @effervescentaromatic LimeTiger 4 lyyyfe

eyeballwatch: woa whats goin om ehatd i miss

quetzel45: @eyeballwatch a friend of LimeTriangle's is going to join the comments

LimeTriangle: no seriously if you link to ffiction im going to ban you

pterydactl: haha still gonna link kt

canonlimetiger: does this mean my otp ship just sank?

*pterydactl has been silenced*

*this room is now on slow mode. you have to wait thirty seconds in between each comment.*

LimeTriangle: to show everybody im serious; and also so i can see who she is, this room is on slow mode for a bit

BlueRaindrop: hey periiiiiiiiiiii !!! :)

Yallowsquare: @LimeTriangle aww no not slow mode

*BlueRaindrop has been promoted to mod*

*room is no longer in slow mode*

lamegreen: welcome to the stream! :>>>

canonlimetiger: omg

effervescentaromatic: oh shit its fucking WaterWitch i didn't expect this

LimeTriangle: @BlueRaindrop if you dont want to be a mod i can unmod you but this way its easier to see you in the comments

Purplesoda: booo limetiger is the otp

*Purplesoda has been silenced*

BlueRaindrop: its okay!!! :) 

BlueRaindrop: but whats limetiger?

LimeTriangle: a fictional ship between two real life people

canonlimetiger: you say that as if it isnt canon ;3

*canonlimetiger has been silenced*

LimeTriangle: remember Jasper from the bus

Yallowsquare: no more slow mode! woohoo we are free

BlueRaindrop: oooh thats happened to me before

effervescentaromatic: anybody here ship Clam?

Trustcarnivore: @effervescentaromatic i do!

LimeTriangle: im gonna guess it might have something to do with Clam

BlueRaindrop: hahaha yeah it does :|

effervescentaromatic: @LimeTriangle its Lapis and her bandmate Pearl, they sing duets on their yt channel

Trustcarnivore: they were adoreabke when they sang that one wickid song

Yallowsquare: @Trustcarnivore is that even how you spell wicked

Trustcarnivore: im sorry for messing up on one word, ok!

Yallowsquare: one?

Trustcarnivore: ugh!!!

 

The boss battle won, Peridot stretched before hopping into the comments one last time to bid everybody a quick goodnight.

 

LimeTriangle: hey everybody, its getting late, and while i dont have to sleep i would rather not collapse from stress so im gonna stop streaming and go to bed

lamegreen: gn!

BlueRaindrop: gn peri! see ya on the bus! :)

 

Shutting down the livestream, Peridot grabbed her personal computer and walked up to her bedroom, quickly searching up the 'WaterWitch' channel. Apparently they weren't just a duet (Peridot was secretly grateful for this) but they had two other band members; a human named Greg on guitar along with his son, Steven, on drums. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like Steven was a... gem? Some of the comments were confusing. Well, he's a Steven.

She continued browsing until her alarm clock rang and she had to get up for the day. Fun stuff.


	4. Sunrise

Peridot often wondered what it was like for those that needed sleep. Just downright collapsing and passing out voluntarily as a part of your daily routine. The closest thing she could relate it to was possibly the time during her formation, but even that was a stretch.

Being unconscious in general sounded harsh. At any given time, some part of her was still thinking, living (as much as a rock could), being. Sleeping sounded like giving all that up for something not nearly worth it. Maybe for the absolute relaxation part, but the rest of it sounded weird. Not to mention the possibility of it all fucking up where you either stay paralyzed when you're not supposed to be and when you're awake, or you get up and move around while you're dreaming!

It was weird.

The gem sat on the bus next to Jasper, who had gotten on at the stop before her and usually saved her a spot. Granted, 'saving a spot' was a very loose term since others tended not to want to sit next to the intimidating gem, but it was still something that happened. In the end, Peridot got a seat next to Jasper and they'd occasionally rant about their jobs.

Having the same boss makes for very interesting conversation, and having a similar lifestyle made for some compelling conversation starters. It was easier than talking to humans or Homeworld gems; the humans seemed to be on edge or were biased (and, being a gem, you'd outlive them anyways) and the Homeworld gems would reminisce about what the last planet had been like, their governmental assignments, the horrible new differences between Homeworld and Earth. Which, admittedly, had been cool at first but Peridot found most of the problems to be the same and she couldn't really relate to them. It was a bit like when they'd learned about the Fusion in class; the humans all seemed to think that she would automatically be interested in it because 'it was a great time' and 'saved millions of lives'.

Honestly? Peridot had usually gotten caught up on the part about her planet's sun going supernova. There would've been warning signs, changes in the sun's patterns, an increase in solar flares. And she didn't want to know whether the Heirarchy had ignored the signs or the humans had refused to give aid until it was nearly too late to save anybody. So much history had been lost, so many gems, it had taken a huge toll on their society.

 

That was why it had been a relief to find out Lapis had been an adoptee as well. It practically guaranteed a similar age range, something to talk about, similar life experiences; and yet she was different enough that Peridot wanted to get to know her better. She seemed more... Optimistic, than many others Peridot had met, and that was partially why Lapis had stood out. That, and Peridot hadn't known a gem that worked as a life guard yet. It may have been the stereotypical movie job that gems seemed to get (partially due to some of them actually living underwater) but there was more to being a lifeguard than just getting the human out of the water. Not only that, but some gems preferred to stay out of the water- usually saying something about the aging properties it had.

Unluckily, not even being poofed and coming back could get rid of the smell of the city. It was a scent that lingered. Which meant those gems had to invest in waterless shampoo, soap, or vats of hand(whole body) sanitizer.

Shaking her head, Peridot leaned back into the bus seat. Honestly, she had to stop letting her mind wander; it led to missing things that were important.

Like Lapis's bus stop.

The gem in a dress climbed the steps and continued down the walkway, looking over the current inhabitants of the bus before landing on Peridot. Smiling, Lapis walked over to the same seat she'd taken the day before and sat down, still smiling.

It was vaguely uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before Peridot lifted a hand in a slow wave.

"Hey."

"Hi Peridot!"

"You seem... Chipper this morning."

Upon hearing that, Lapis seemed to chill out slightly, leaning back in her seat and shrugging.

"Oh, sorry."

"Don't be, I wasn't saying it to be mean or anything. I was just wondering  _how_."

"Oh."

Lapis seemed to relax at that, thinking for a moment. 

"I'm not sure, I mean, I don't think anybody's asked me that before? I don't really know. I guess I'm just an optimist. Plus, watching funny videos for half the night will do that to you."

"Oh my gooood, you two need to just get a room."

Peridot turned to Jasper, glaring, when she realized that Jasper had her phone in her hands and a sly smirk for an expression.

"What, really? You big clod, give me the phone! Delete it!"

Peridot tried to grab Jasper's phone, but the taller gem leaned backwards and held it out of reach. When just normally grabbing it wasn't an option, Peridot then tried to climb Jasper quite unsuccessfully.

When the bus stopped, Peridot became aware of someone laughing nearby. When she turned to look, Jasper succeeded and knocked her back into her seat. 

"Bye, Mount Everest. Miss Agate Hillary. See ya' later!"

Lapis had gotten up, probably to get off the bus. She waved to them both with a smile as she stepped off the bus.

Both Jasper and Peridot were happy when they reached their workplace. Peridot looked up what 'Agate Hillary' meant in relation to Mount Everest and found out she'd been called a pun. After forwarding a few pictures to Jasper of Mt. Everest, she finally focused on her work (which seemed harder to concentrate on when she kept remembering the pun).


	5. New Experiences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everybody for the comments! I really appreciate them (and they help remind me that this fic exists which means more ideas for it, etc.). we're nearly at 2000 views too, i think thats the most any fic of mine has gotten! if you have any questions, i'm at genderfluidvriska on tumblr btw! :>>>
> 
> alrighty so i looked at this fic and saw... i had a whole chapter ready to be posted. it just needed to be formatted. how could i Forget  
> im not even sure whats In this chapter, so? ya  
> if i have time later, im going to reread this whole piece and try to write another chapter. im now at sparsilelammergeier on tumblr btw, and probably going to write a piece soon with an original character about coping and recovering from abuse, the character was an rp character so some others mentioned will not be mine aha  
> thanks for reading

Over the span of the next few days, Peridot, Jasper, and Lapis's routines continued much as they had been. After a bunch of suggestions from her viewers, Peridot decided to ask Lapis to collaborate with her; despite their different talents, Lapis could still play a video game. Why wouldn't she be able to?

And, more importantly, had said yes to the collaboration; and despite such short notice, was able to somehow make a video advertising it on her youtube channel. Just a short one, starring mostly her face and some blurry and shaky camera movements, along with some occasional snickers.

 Peridot was honestly kind of envious of Lapis's editing skills. Peridot usually had to plan her videos in advance and come up with a schedule lasting up to a month of when she'd release videos; editing took a while, longer than the actual recording most times. Peridot still hadn't shown her face, though. Her viewers only knew her by voice, much to their annoyance. And her glee. Surprisingly, many of Peridot's subscribers followed her on tumblr as well, although there she wasn't very active. Usually she just went on once a week to tweak her queue and answer questions about her life. It was honestly hard sometimes in deciding who and who not to follow; because of that she had a three strike rule and kept the urls on a short list taped on the side of her current computer, an outdated model that could literally break down any minute. Wasn't like tumblr was any better; their user base was the largest reason why one would join it, and even then it was iffy.

Peridot personally preferred smaller sites as they were often the ones in need of most coding assistance; meaning she could make some money on the side while she worked on paying for electric, rent, gas, insurance... Her biggest relief was that she didn't have a car and therefore didn't have to pay the day to day maintenance or the car insurance. Those would have taken a huge chunk out of her savings; while a bus membership cost a little, it wasn't as bad, and sometimes the machines would break down, meaning she didn't have to pay at all. A win-win situation of sorts. And, as good as her job was, Peridot didn't want to call it a career. In fact, the gem wanted to work for Google, or Yahoo, or some other big name corporation; as far as she knew about Google, though, that was her best bet for a good job.

They had a multitude of rubber ducks, which was great for coding. Honestly, part of Peridot's favorite aspects of coding was the culture and history that came with it, and the customs while going through code. Rubber ducking, also known as explaining your code to a rubber duck to find the problem in it, is one of her favorite parts (despite not owning any rubber ducks at the moment). Learning about the origin of the word debugging (a pun made by a coder as they had found an actual bug in the systems) or simply just the logical aspect of coding, those were her favorite things. Apparently, they hadn't had these on Homeworld. Peridot didn't care; a lot of human culture was new to Homeworld gems, just as a lot of the Homeworld's technology was new to humans.

The cultural meld had probably jumped both societies forward by a century, just with the things that the gems had brought with them on the migration between planets. Of course, there was the minor problem of making sure there was nothing involving minor stabbing, decapitation, or drowning in the machines; gems were more hardy and able to survive in rougher environments, and what would poof a gem would typically kill a human. Those kinds of machines were generally easily fixed to be made accessible to the general able-bodied human, and with more modification, were available to the disabled as well.

The doorbell rang, causing Peridot to look up from her wikipedia tab on technology advances. Glancing at the clock (it was 6:56 pm), Peridot carefully set her computer down and got up out of bed. Her actions were slow while she tried to remember who would be here on her day off, before remembering the date. Shoot. Actually lifting up her feet for once, the green gem jumped down the steps two at a time, not wanting to be rude to her new friend. Honestly, that wasn't the best way to start a re-friendship. Mentally correcting her thoughts, Peridot pulled open the door with a smile. And there was Lapis. Lifting her hand in another knock, turned half wave now that she didn't have to wait. Lapis's eyes met Peridot's, and they both seemed to smile in relief. Peridot left the door open and walked away, suddenly feeling kind of stressed. Nervous? That was it. Walking past the kitchen and into the living room, Peridot spoke.

"Thanks for coming, I set the things up earlier and I've got an extra headset, plus a few games that we could play on Steam. They're multiplayer and even the ones that aren't, they're pretty user interactive- you can go ahead and handle the controls on those, I've already played most of them so, y'know, diversity with playing experience and all that."

Lapis trailed after her, having closed the door. Looking around the apartment, she smiled at an edit of a tiger fighting a dolphin on one wall. The frame was a simple black one; inexpensive compared to the other ones that could be found, yet fitting with most art. Lapis looked to where Peridot had set up what seemed to be a gaming center; not only did Peridot have Steam, she had a few other game consoles. She could recognize an X-Box 360, a 3DS XL in the corner of one of the shelves, a Wii-U... And apparently, some way to connect her laptop to the TV.

"Oh, no worries. Not like I had something better to do. Anyways, I thought you were saving up... Aren't a lot of these expensive?"

Pausing for a moment, Peridot shrugged, looking up from the games she was putting on the table in front of the couch. "A lot of them are gifts; 'birthdays', holidays, y'know. Eight gifts a season. Then there's my parents, who give gifts each St. Valentine's Day. And Easter, even though they don't really celebrate it."

Lapis nodded, grinning.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool how they do that! I've talked to Homeworlds before, they didn't have anything like that. No real holidays... That would be pretty sad, y'know? Kind of boring."

Peridot nodded, silently agreeing before realizing the last game she had set out- some romantic dating sim placed in a camp setting- and nearly screamed. Since it was on the end of the table, it would probably be fine to just... Sort of... Slide it off the end? Maybe Lapis hadn't noticed. 

Lapis was, after all, reading the back of one of the other games at the current moment. So Peridot decided to seize the moment and just slowly slip the case off the edge.

Unfortunately, a sudden glance from Lapis caused Peri to panic and use waaay more strength than needed. The case was flung across the room in reckless abandon, and Peridot flinched instinctively at the loud noise. Lapis, too, jumped for a moment before smiling, snorting, and starting to laugh.

"So, Peridot, what was that? See a bug?"

Frowning and blushing in embarrassment, the green gem scrunched up her nose and shifted where she was sitting.

"No! I just- it was- muscle spasm. It... Happens sometimes."

Lapis didn't look impressed. In fact, her current look at the moment included a smirk that showed she very much knew that Peridot was covering something up. But, she didn't want to push it.

"Yeah. Right. Muscle spasm."

Eager to change the topic, Peridot would clear her throat before speaking.

"So, Lapis, have you chosen a game?"

Rolling her eyes for a moment, Lapis held out the game she was holding; Peridot was closer to the whole setup, after all. It was one that was about some reporter that got stuck in the wilderness and had to survive on their own; keeping a detailed journal with pictures of what happened, of course. It was multiplayer- the goal was to not die, basically.

"Oh! That's a good one."

Putting the disk into the system and starting it up, Peridot held one of the controllers out to Lapis, before sitting down on the couch, starting to slump down. Lapis took the controller, slightly amused by the way Peridot was sitting, before turning to the TV.

"Have you played this one before?"

Sitting up (she'd remembered that this was one of her first impressions on Lapis after all), Peridot hesitated.

"Yeah; it's waaay better as a multiplayer than alone, though."

 

They spent an hour or so playing, until it was time to actually start the stream. It was mostly warming up, getting reaquainted with the controls, and some witty banter (of course).


End file.
